A Little Fall of Rain - A Les Miserables story
by Adria Lynne Tondreault
Summary: A spin on Victor Hugo's masterpiece, with Saionji as Marius, Wakaba as Eponine, and Anthy as Cosette.


Author's Note: This is based on the book by Victor Hugo, his original characters replaced by Chiho Saito's original characters. Saionji Kyoichi takes the place of Marius, Shinohara Wakaba the place of Eponine, and although only mentioned, Himemiya Anthy the place of Cosette. Tenjou Utena makes a very short appearance, replacing Gavroche. Yeah, she can play the part of a boy. ;x  
  
First scene is the book version, and then the songfic for the musical, "A Little Fall of Rain." I debated replacing the gun with a rapier, but I like it better old-fashioned..  
  
Also, to accompany the song, my girlfriend made a darling Wakaba backround.. http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/kyoichisaionjii/images/onmyown_wakaba.jpg  
  
^^  
  
So without further adieu, let the tragedy commence.  
  
xoxo,  
  
Adria Lynne Tondreault, 5/7/02  
  
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(Fade in. Saionji's uniform is blackened with ashes and he is advancing towards the dueling arena. Although the revolution was close at hand, all that he could think of was Anthy. He wondered if Wakaba had delivered his letter to her..if the letter had gotten there safely. Would she wait for him? His thoughts were interrupted by a feeble cry..)  
  
  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"Saionji-sama!"  
  
(Saionji startled, recognizing the voice which he had heard not two hours ago, yet now seemed like nothing more than a breath. He looked around but saw no one, and began to doubt his sanity. He shook it off and advanced another step towards the dueling grounds.)  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"Saionji-sama!"  
  
(Saionji, this time, knew he distinctly heard something and turned, yet to no avail.)  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"At your feet!"  
  
(He looked down and finally found the source of the cry. Crawling towards him was a form bound in tattered boys clothing. A blouse, coarse velveted torn trousers, barefooted and stained with thick, crimson fluid, almost black in the darkness.)  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"You do not recognize me?"  
  
(Saionji)  
  
"No."  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"Wakaba…"  
  
(Saionji immediately stooped down as he recognized her, the male attire having thrown him off.)  
  
"How come you here? What are you doing here?"  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"I'm dying."  
  
(Saionji's body froze at her simple words. He immediately cried out.)  
  
"You're wounded! Wait, I will carry you into the room! They will attend to you there. Is it serious? How must I take hold of you in order not to hurt you? Where do you suffer? Help! My Dios! But why did you come hither?"  
  
(Saionji tries to wrap his arms around her to lift her, but she whimpers in pain.)  
  
"Have I hurt you?"  
  
(Wakaba, meekly)  
  
"A little."  
  
(Saionji)  
  
"But I only touched your hand."  
  
(Wakaba raises her hand to Saionji, and in the middle was a deep wound. Saionji responds with wide eyes.)  
  
"What is the matter with your hand?"  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"It is pierced."  
  
(Saionji)  
  
"Pierced?"  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"Yes."  
  
(Saionji)  
  
"What with?"  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"A bullet."  
  
(Saionji)  
  
"How?"  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"Did you see a gun aimed at you?"  
  
(Saioni)  
  
"Yes, and a hand stopping it."  
  
(Wakaba, softly.)  
  
"It was mine."  
  
(Saionji shuddered, his heart racing.)  
  
"What madness! Poor girl! But so much the better, if that is all, it is nothing, let me carry you to a bed. They will dress your wound, one does not die of a pierced hand."  
  
(Wakaba murmurs solemly, trying to cover up her fear.)  
  
"The bullet traversed my hand, but it came out through my back. It is useless to remove me from this spot. I will tell you how you can care for me better than any surgeon. Sit down near me on this stone."  
  
(Saionji obeyed without retort for probably the first time in his life.)  
  
(Wakaba lay down and rested her cheek on Saionji's lap, speaking without looking up at him.)  
  
"Oh! How good this is! How comfortable this is! There - I no longer suffer."  
  
(Wakaba hesitates a moment, then with a weak moan she turned on her back to look up at him, dainty hands clasped over her subtle bust, deep innocent umber eyes looking into his stormy violet hues.)  
  
"Do you know what, Saionji-sempai? It puzzled me because you entered that rose garden; it was stupid, because it was I who showed you that place; and then, I ought to have said to myself that a young man like you-."  
  
(Wakaba paused, and overstepping the somber transitions that undoubtedly exhisted in her mind, she resumed with a heartending smile.)  
  
"You thought me ugly, didn't you?"  
  
(Wakaba continues before Saionji can reply, his lips parted and just watching her with an odd sense of awe.)  
  
"You see, you are lost! Now, no one can get out of the arena. It was I who led you here, by the way! You are going to die, I count upon that. And yet, when I saw them taking aim at you, I put my hand on the muzzle of the gun. How queer it is! But it was because I wanted to die before you. When I received that bullet, I dragged myself here, no one saw me, no one picked me up, I was waiting for you, I said : 'So he is not coming!' Oh, if you only knew. I bit my blouse, I suffered so! Now I am well. Do you remember that day I entered your chamber and when I looked at myself in your mirror, and the day when I came to you on the boulevard near the washer women? How the birds sang! That was, a long time ago. You gave me a hundred sous, and I said to you : 'I don't want your money.' I hope you picked up your coin? You are not rich. I did not think to tell you to pick it up. The sun was shining bright, and it was not cold. Do you remember, Sainji-sama? Oh! How happy I am! Every one is going to die.  
  
(Wakaba gave a mad, grave and heart-breaking air. Her torn blouse disclosed her bare throat. As she talked, she pressed her pierced hand to her breast, where there was another hole which must have just missed her heart with a brush. A wine-coloured stain matted her blouse right to her skin, and Saionji stared at her with profound compassion, although deep within he was horridly reminded of how wild she was when she bore that black signet..Wakaba continues.)  
  
"Oh! It is coming again, I am stifling!"  
  
(Wakaba caught up her blouse, and bit it, her eyes closed tightly to hold back tears, yet the pearl droplets adorned her eyelashes. Saionji lightly touched his palm to her cheek.)  
  
(At that moment a young cock's crow was cawed by Utena, the wannabe Prince. The boyish girl had mounted a table to load her gun, and was singing galy the song then so popular.)  
  
"En voyant Lafayette, ("On beholding Lafayette,)  
  
La gendarme repete:--(The gendarme repeats:--)  
  
Sauvons nous! Sauvons nous! (Let us flee! Let us flee!)  
  
Sauvons nous!" (Let us flee!")  
  
(Wakaba raised herself and listened, and then murmured.)  
  
"It is she."  
  
(Wakaba turns towards Saionji.)  
  
"My best friend is here. She must not see me. She would scold me."  
  
(Saionji, who was mediating in the most bitter and sorrowful depths of his heart on the duties to the Student Council in which he was supposed to be carrying out, torn between such, his bride-to-be Anthy, and the girl who had always been by his side with a happy cheerful aura who was now suffering in his own arms.)  
  
"Your best friend? Who is your best friend?"  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"That girl yonder."  
  
(Saionji)  
  
"The one who is singing?"  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"Yes."  
  
(Saionji made a movement, to which Wakaba retorted.)  
  
"Oh! Don't go away. It will not be long now…"  
  
(Wakaba sat almost upright on his lap, but her voice was very low and broken by hiccoughs. At intervals, the death rattle interrupted her. She put her face as near that of Saionji's as possible. She added with a strange expression--)  
  
"Listen, I do not wish to play you a trick. I have a letter in my pocket for you. I was told to put it in the post. I kept it. I did not want to have it reach you. But perhaps you will be angry with me for it when we meet again presently? Take your letter."  
  
(Wakaba grasps Saionji's hand convulsively with her smaller, wounded one, but she no longer seemed to feel her sufferings. She put Saionji's fingertips into the pocket of her blouse, where he felt a paper.)  
  
"Take it."  
  
(Saionji slipped his hand in and took the neatly-folded parchment.)  
  
(Wakaba sighed in satisfaction and contentment.)  
  
"Now, for my trouble, promise me-.."  
  
(Wakaba stops, and Saionji speaks at the pause.)  
  
"What?"  
  
(Wakaba prompts Saionji.)  
  
"Promise me!"  
  
(Saionji)  
  
"I promise."  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
"Promise to give me a kiss on my brow when I am dead. -I shall feel it."  
  
(Wakaba lay her head again on Saionji's lap, and her eyelids closed. He thought her poor soul had departed. Wakaba remained motionless. All at once, at the very moment Saionji fancied her asleep forever, she slowly opened her deep brown eyes in which appeared the somber profundity of death, and said to him in a tone whose sweetness seemed already to proceed from another world : -- )  
  
"And by the way, Saionji-sama, I believe that I was a little bit in love with you."  
  
(Wakaba tried to smile once more, and closed her eyes. The corner's of Saionji's lips tugged downwards, quivering with overwhelmed emotion, and he gently ran his fingertips over her delicate features. He scooped her up in his arms, cradling her form, and pressed the most sincere kiss to her forehead beside a curl of auburn hair. He felt her bosom rise and fall as her final sigh escaped her lips. Wakaba crossed over, in Saionji's arms.)  
  
fini.  
  
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"A Little Fall of Rain"  
  
  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
So don't you fret, Saionji-sama..  
  
I don't feel any pain.  
  
A little fall of rain  
  
Can hardly hurt me now  
  
You're here, that's all I need to know  
  
And you will keep me safe  
  
And you will keep me close  
  
And rain will make the flowers grow.  
  
(Saionji)  
  
But you will live, 'Kabako, Dear Dios above  
  
If I could close your wounds with words of love..  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
Just hold me now, and let it be.  
  
Shelter me, comfort me...  
  
(Saionji)  
  
You would live  
  
A hundred years  
  
If I could show you how  
  
I won't desert you now...  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
The rain can't hurt me now..  
  
This rain will wash away what's past  
  
And you will keep me safe  
  
And you will keep me close  
  
I'll sleep in your embrace at last  
  
The rain that brings you here  
  
Is Heaven-blessed!  
  
The skies begin to clear  
  
And I'm at rest  
  
A breath away from where you are  
  
I've come home from so far  
  
(Wakaba et Saionji in Counterpoint)  
  
So don't you fret, Saionji-sama / Hush-A-Bye, dear Wakaba  
  
I don't feel any pain / You won't feel any pain  
  
A little fall of rain  
  
Can hardly hurt me now / Can hardly hurt you now  
  
(Saionji)  
  
I'm here  
  
(Wakaba)  
  
That's all I need to know  
  
(Wakaba et Saionji in counterpoint)  
  
And you will keep me safe / I will stay with you  
  
And you will keep me close / Till you are sleeping  
  
And rain / And rain  
  
Will make the flowers / Will make the flowers  
  
(Wakaba drifts from conciousness. Saionji kisses her still-warm lips, holding her protectively in his arms, and lays her to rest.)  
  
(Saionji)  
  
…Grow… 


End file.
